


Haoul

by Kanja



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F, Fantasy, GLBTQA
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-18 23:58:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5948169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kanja/pseuds/Kanja
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It is the season of Haunit, which means harvest festivals, feasts, tribute to the lost, and celebrations. This year, Lio has turned her back on the traditions of her tribe, opting instead to travel to the far-away land of Halchein to observe the ceremony of Haoul -- where for one day, the veil lifts between her world and the next and the spirits are free to roam. </p><p>What she does not know is that one spirit in particular is eager for a chance at retribution this year. Lio stands to lose everything in a race against time, distance, and her own messy past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter I

" _Oma disiez_." Lio was laid out on a hemp hammock. The paper cone between her fingers sizzled and burned -- and merited a wallop of an eyeroll from Tiana.

"I told you, no smoking," Tiana hissed, swatting at her with her palm fan. The blades crashed loudly over Lio's knee.

"This is serious. The _mesista_ is coming up--"

"Lio, when are you going to grow up?" Tiana scolded. "That's for young _maidens_ who don't have husbands yet and are still young enough to get away with acting like a fool."

Lio smiled sheepishly. "Need I remind you that we acted the fool together not so long ago?" she asked, leaning across the gap that separated them. Tiana let her get halfway off the hammock, then rocked it back violently.

"Aaaaaaahhh--"

"I'm going to have to take care of you my whole life. I just know it." Tiana wiped off her hands, a job well done. "Go on. The _mesista_."

"My mark, you know?" Lio sank back into the hammock. "The duchess. Widow of that disgusting _me si che_ from Alpemia. I'm--"

"Living in her bed--"

" _Escorting_. Her. Through the kiiiingdom of Helspraucht." Lio gave it big vowels and a dazzling cadence. She took in a big lungful of smoke, and unleashed with a breath a stormcloud of fumes above her prone form.

Tiana ripped it from her hand and stomped it out on the pavement. (But Lio caught her taking a little toke on the way down.)

"Continue. Like the professional you're paid to be. We're in a nice place and what's the first thing you do?"

Helspraucht proper was a lush garden of wild ivy and ivory towers. Its unbridled, majestic construction was so mystifying that it seemed like the world-famous Spiral Needle sprang up from the ground just as the twisting trees of the glade had, fathering many generations of similar, littler towers in its divisive shadow.

This uncharted wilderness of physics-defying architecture was, of course, a great attraction to a vast number of people. But Tiana and Lio weren't just tourists -- they were card-carrying faculty.

Tiana was the agreeable one. She alone lorded over the royal books and made certain that the budget was straight. She decided which money went where and was the primary negotiator on the import circuit. Sure, she took a few side jobs here and there cleaning up money that could start wars, but only because she was a practical woman. Why not get paid to keep the peace?

Tiana's life was mostly normal until Lio showed up out of the blue on her doorstep, shivering. Not from the cold, but from the trauma of another failed love affair, courting yet another lady of fine silver and white marble and the proper pedigree -- all things that Lio could never fully understand. It was the same story as every time: a coy courtship. A fierce, passionate romance. A period of calm, of reflection, of growth.

And then:

"HIM," Lio had wailed on to Tiana's shoulder. That time, the time before, and so on and so forth, in a trend that would probably continue until the end of time.

Worse than that, it was always the same HIM.

He was always a mild man ("complete deadweight") from a family hoarding some fortune in resources like a pack of dragons. Sometimes he'd bring sugar. Sometimes cows. Once, a simple bean ("from a plant miles and miles away in a place nobody cares about. It's a huge mistake.").

And then, as always, Lio got the boot. She found herself out on her ass, and ended up right back on Tiana's shoulder.

Last time, Lio had fooled her. She'd thought Lio was gone for good, off a world away with some exotic princess. But sure enough, she came right back a few years later, with a few extra scars and a heavy heart all over again. That was when Tiana smartened her up, bought her a nice jacket, and took her to the queen.

Though many argued that money and politics should never meet, Queen Riraera (Rara to her most trusted advisors) considered no one a more dependable associate than Tiana.

Rara, on the day of Lio's introduction, was seated at a mini-throne of sorts before her desk. Her chair was ornately gilded, laced with pink feathers, and sprinkled with faceted crystals -- truly a sight to behold for a backwater nobody like Lio. Tiana helped her out of her ogling trance by pitching Lio to the foot of Rara's chair.

"Use her," Tiana had said to her briskly, as Lio slowly unfolded from the ground. "Don't look at her face, fool! She's the queen. Have your deep-pocketed conquests taught you nothing?"

"No, I'm gonna look," Lio had insisted, smiling all the while. "I would die for a look at that face that I caught just a glimpse of on my--"

"Oh, don't start that," Tiana scowled.

Rara brushed her lips with the feathered tip of her plush quill. "What shall I do with her?"

"Look at these shoulders. Lio, stand up straight."

Lio was compelled by some unseen force to oblige -- or perhaps she was compelled by Tiana's no-nonsense stare. Either way, her shoulders rolled back, displaying a satisfactory horizon extending from either side of her long neck.

"Hmmm..." Rara had wondered.

"Believe me, you need one of these. I'll clean up all the little accidents," Tiana had implored.

"You do love me," Lio had butt in, clearly uninvited. Tiana shut her up quick.

"I'll take her!"

And that was decided. Fair queen Rara, with yet another fabulous pet and her royal coffers mysteriously overflowing.

Lio, it turned out, was great for the economy. Knowing so many people, getting into so many secret venues, wrestling so many hushed confessions from rouged maidens, and displaying an eerie eagerness to quiet rival parties in the colonies were traits that could really carry a nation. Over time, Lio populated the secret attic over Queen Rara's divine canopy bed with more and more women like herself. They were suddenly a group of like-minded ruffians in exactly the span of time it took for a pair of roaches to become an infestation.

But Queen Rara was, of course, delighted by her pet team of bandits, assassins, and highwaywomen. Tiana let her have that joy, weeded out the bad apples, and kept her city clean and safe.

With, maybe, a little help from Lio.

Which still did not excuse her ungratefulness.

"The first thing you do is sit on your ass and smoke and wonder why you keep putting off your training."

"Okay, okay, I'll admit it, I've been awful." Lio took Tiana's hand and kissed her knuckles before she could snatch it away. "But this is important."

" _Mesista_."

"Everyone does it in Helspraucht. It isn't just silly teenagers. They have the big ritual every year-- and, oh man, the auctions--"

"The _mesista_ is supposed to be about honoring your most beloved mentor. Or the other way around. I didn't know you could buy a--"

" _Sila,"_ Lio helped eagerly. "They line them up at auction, and the _akusa_ like me can have their pick of the litter. But that doesn't matter. Bené wants me as her _akusa_."

"She wants you as a rebound from her dead husband," Tiana patiently reminded her. "Her people don't believe in _sila_ or _akusa_."

"She may not believe," Lio said grandly, "but I'm giving her faith."

Tiana could not help but to send her swaying and rocking again. Annoyingly, Lio spiritedly enjoyed the ride, cackling as she rocketed to and fro.

"You are the worst at articulating your thoughts."

"Where was I? Oh yeah." Lio peeked over the edge of the hammock, her wild bush of hair threatening to devour the rest of her head. "What if she brings tribute to me?"

"Then... you'll have a tribute?" Tiana tried.

"But I won't have one for her," Lio reasoned.

"So get her something," Tiana tried again, also to no avail.

"Then what if she doesn't bring me tribute?" Lio asked. "Then it'll look weird and juvenile. Or offensive. Who knows?"

"So don't get her something."

"But Tee, let me _remind you_ \--"

"You give me a headache with this girl," Tiana protested. "I'm going to have Suli kill her."

"Awwww, Teeeee--"

"Quit your whining. Just get her something," Tiana said, taking Lio's chin into her hands. Lio smiled, eyes closed. "You know you want to anyway. It'll be something extravagant and over the top that will scare her away immediately."

"You know me," Lio purred.

"And if it does, it just means she doesn't deserve you. Like I don't deserve you, after all I been through to make this life work out for us."

"I love you more than her," Lio swore, as she always did, about this one, the last one, and like she would when the next one happened by.

"Get out of here."

"You were my _akusa_ once, remember?" As Lio brought it up every beat of the clock, how could Tiana forget? "You taught me everything I know."

"And you were the worst student. You actually have to be on the same continent as your _akusa_ to have a true bond, you know."

"You know that was a freak thing." Although it wasn't.

" _A freak thing_ ," Tiana repeated, keeping her eye on Lio the whole time so that she would be well aware of how seriously she was not being taken. Put in the spotlight like that, Lio had to squirm.

"Well, yeah..."

"Tell me exactly which part of your little vacation in Alstonia was a 'freak situation,'" Tiana implored. "Was it the part where Lady Aquilas made you her pet and bought you that apartment in Samail?"

"You heard about that?" Lio asked -- to Tiana's back, because Tiana had heard enough already. Tiana knew better; Lio wasn't someone you could exactly turn your back on, not without tempting her to visit with you days longer in protest. Tiana was stuck with Lio regardless, so it did not matter much to her.

"And the parade," Tiana added, leading the way down the tower stairs. The Helspraucht were a people well-acquainted with heights. No one took Lio and Tiana's land-loving proclivities into consideration when they were boarded; their way down consisted of a single, skinny path with a hundred yard drop on either side.

Tiana, cool to the core and never one to make waves, was too irritated to feel the vertigo anyway. She found her center, though, and kept her eyes strictly on the path ahead.

Lio couldn't be bothered to do the same. At the first bend in their journey, she wrapped her arm around Tiana and cranked them both to the northwest.

"Look," Lio whispered, quiet only because she was breathless.

"Some of us don't have time to stop and ogle the queen's rosebushes," Tiana informed her, but there was no helping it.

"Not that. The two moons. see?"

Across the way, the Great Spire stretched tall into the clouds. At its foundations was the massive pool that functioned as the lifeblood of Helspraucht society, a wide, solemn pool as glassy and seamless as the rest of the city. On nights like these, the Spire appeared not to be nestled into the crook of a cliff, but suspended atop a sheer drop into the stars. The moon reflected not once, but twice, a sight that drew in admiring tourists more than any other attraction the kingdom had to offer.

Already, the pair could make out the bonfires lit around the shoreline. A breeze dusted their tiny, precarious platform with all the smoke and sweet smells of the gathering.

"And that," Tiana pointed out, "is exactly what we don't have time for."

"Oh we so do," Lio insisted.

"I run all of the major ports in this city. I am responsible for enforcing the tax rates on imported goods, for enforcing the enforcement of those tax rates, for--"

"I know, I know." Lio laughed. "So let's go."

"You aren't--"

"Listening? Definitely not."

Tiana sighed. "I don't know why I try at all sometimes."

"Secretly," said Lio, leading her down the wrong path, away from the waiting ships with their books that needed settling and wares that needed inventory, "deep, deep down inside, you really love me."

Tiana didn't bother to answer. (Lie or otherwise, Lio didn't need to hear her response.) Instead, she started fixing up her hair on the second to last step, smoothed down her skirts, and put on her most diplomatic smile.

Lio had a special smile for this gathering too, but it was less congenial and far racier. By the time the crowd was exposed as people and not as the vague, shadowed gathering they had glimpsed from their hammocks, Lio was already scanning the crowd, looking for something.

Tiana was relieved to spot the queen just as she entered the fairgrounds. There she was beneath the sayam tree, sitting cross-legged, leading a drum circle. As Rara's palms paddled the skins, the silver charms on her bracelet added an ethereal shimmer to the thundering beat.

Tiana took her place beside her queen, as she always did, but Lio stood before her.

"Oh! I thought you couldn't make it," said Rara, lifting her blue eyes out of the trance space she had lost herself to before their arrival. She did not look at Tiana, but rather at Lio, as she said, "I'm glad that you came."

"I'm sure," Tiana mumbled. Lio was doing something with her hips, lifting her arms up to the moon that was replicated doubly in the pool, while the earthbound part of her swayed from side to side. Rara, leader of all free men and the rhythm section, stretched out the silence between every beat and the grounds succumbed to a languid thrum.

"I'm surprised she could get you away from those boats. They're Althemian, aren't they?" asked the queen. Now Lio was gesturing, finger crooked, and the queen was glancing at Tiana out of the corner of her eye as if hoping for some sort of permission.

Tiana never gave it.

"Me too," Tiana replied curtly, "My Light."

"Ooh, you know I hate it when you're formal. Tee, we nearly grew up together."

They hadn't, but that was an easy sort of thing for people of Rara's station to say. Tiana's mother had toiled in the service quarter of the kingdom for most of Tiana's childhood. As with all things Helspraucht, mingling was a huge part of the culture, but Tiana knew she never truly belonged.

Like, she suspected, Lio also knew. They both had their ways of dealing with being fish out of water, it seemed.

Tiana's silence always made the queen uncomfortable. It was the sole method of revenge Tiana would allow herself; she was far too practical for anything less subtle.

"And the Graya?" Rara asked. This time, it made sense for her to be eyeing Lio's sweeping dance across the lawn -- this was the organization that Tiana and Lio had built together, the organization that Rara had come to very heavily rely on these days.

"You know how they are," Tiana replied. "Impossible to contain. How do you ever stand the noise, My Light?"

The safest place in the Spire was the attic above the queen's sprawling canopy bed, and there was no more suitable venue for the Graya. Their operation was nothing if not for the keeping of secrets -- even if those secrets were rarely their own. Rather, they were like ferrets, always chattering away in that attic while Tiana attended the Queen's reports, scurrying off after some shiny divot of forbidden insight and skittering up the hidden stair back into the attic again when it was found. They did their job well, of course; all the machinations of the kingdom functioned flawlessly under Tiana's meticulous watch. But they'd also grown far larger in number than she was comfortable with, compliments of Lio's penchant for picking up strays and Rara's infuriating inability to deny Lio anything. Rara knew that Lio quested after nobles, exploiting their warm hospitality and generous gifts for the advancement of the kingdom, but for some reason, she remained blind to the notion that Lio might ever have an ulterior motive with her. It was for that reason -- and a few others -- that Tiana liked to keep them apart.

No small feat when they nearly shared a room.

"It's no bother," the queen had protested even then. Unlike the women of the Graya, Rara found it impossible to hide her emotions, and on her face, a ruby red band of heat stretched from ear to ear. "I rather enjoy having them. Of course, it makes me feel very safe."

"Need I remind you of the situation in Halchein?" Tiana asked. Halchein had been a loss that Tiana needed to cut; their politics moved far too swiftly for even the Graya to keep up with. It was easier, in that situation, to do away with the duchess that was rising to political prominence at the time, replacing her with one that had summered with Lio in Conta Fyores the year before. That one sent letters to her most trusted advisor every week, detailing all the sensitive nuances of Halchein's daily operations.

Of course, that duchess wasn't aware that Lio never received those letters, opting to let Tiana read through them and give her the footnotes. As well, Lio never truly cared for much of what the duchess had to say, beyond how often the chime of the morning bells invoked the sound of Lio's laughter for her, or how vividly she had dreamt of a reunion the night before.

And that was the Graya way. Even Rara was forced to remember sometimes -- like now, as she shamefully tore her eyes away from Lio and turned them, at last, to her advisor.

"Is that handled?" the queen asked weakly. She didn't have much of a stomach for the gritty details of these exchanges, so Tiana kept them wrapped in optimistic conclusions.

"Oh yes, My Light. I am very glad to say that business has resumed in Halchein as we'd hoped. The cardinal will no longer seek to make Halchein an independent territory, and will continue to offer his spiritual guidance to the blessed people of Helspraucht. Not only that, but you will love the Duchess Bené. She is nearly as radiant as yourself, and--"

"A friend of Lio's?"

Perhaps it was impossible to keep some details from the queen. Tiana suspected this had nothing to do with her governing insights.

"A business associate, my queen. Of course, you know this. It is--"

" _The Graya Way_. I know, Tee," said the queen, though 'knowing' and 'liking' would obviously not be coupling here. "Is she...really nice?"

"Very nice," Tiana insisted, and she sighed. The tree was warm, felt pleasant from the hum of percussion in the air, and offered her weary spine the support that it needed. Tiana and Rara were now too close to ignore or dance around one another. "In our hearts, My Queen, and in the hearts of all your people, there is no one more prominent than yourself."

"I wish that I could believe that," Rara laughed, "but you are so sweet to say. Tee, you have always been so kind to me."

"And you to me. But that isn't the reason why I am telling you this," Tiana said. "You know that I would never lead you astray, but with all due respect, My Light, there are things that I have seen that you have not."

"Yes," Rara answered quietly. Tiana knew one thing in particular that truly boiled her, but she said nothing of it. Again, Tiana pressed on.

"I know when there is danger, My Light," said Tiana, rubbing the queen's tiny shoulders through the gossamer fabric of her dress. "The Graya have all the same properties of any other weapon -- they feel good to use, but they are a danger to everyone without a disciplined hand. Just as a blade can be turned against its master, you too can never be sure of the Graya."

"But--" the queen protested. Royalty often never knew when to keep their opinions private. Tiana enjoyed nothing more than informing them of this.

"There will be no exceptions, My Light. The Graya are under oath. "Anything for the kingdom." Anything," Tiana pointed out, "is a concept without limits."

"I am not the most prominent in Lio's heart," said the queen. "Helspraucht is."

She sounded so miserable. Tiana gently pressed a hand against her cheek, allowing her to drift and then rest against Tiana's shoulder. To the people of Helspraucht, this was no bizarre, gossip-worthy occasion. Tiana and Rara had been tangled up since they were little girls, and had yet to come untangled.

Rara met Tiana's eyes, and in that look, Tiana saw all of the longing that broke her heart. Not simply for the loose cannon maverick of the Graya, but for a life outside these walls, for the knowledge of passion and heartache that she feared but always envied. Tiana bid her eyes closed with a light sweep of her fingers and took up the rhythm for her queen, commanding the crowd to resume the gentle heartbeat of Helspraucht's twilight song.   


	2. Chapter II

Noeleene appeared as she always did -- silently, and without prelude. Lio knew her only for her reflection in the pool and the ambient presence she had grown familiar with in their work together as the Graya.

 

" _Noee_ ," said Lio, lifting her feet out of the pool so that water would sluice between her toes and dapple the surface with ripples that obscured her vision of the twin moons. "Here to kill me? Took you long enough. Look, I got bored waiting for you."

 

Along the way, Lio must have figured that constantly joking about a coup would successfully prevent one. As Graya leadership, she was aware, perhaps even more than Tiana, of what her women were capable of. This joke had become a part of the typical Graya exchange, though if anyone was to honestly act upon it, Lio figured that Noee would not be that woman. Not while the money was good, at least.

 

"Damn. You're good," Noee replied, curling up next to her. "Next time, you won't see me coming."

 

Noee was not one to underestimate, however. An avid master of poisons, Noee cultivated all the most beautiful -- and toxic -- flowers and ferns in the royal herbarium, most of which had been imported from her homeland in Basai. Noee knew how to infuse her skin with toxins so that her touch could send a man to his grave, she knew how to turn the air into a fog that left in its wake no survivors, and she could fool the best poison tasters in every kingdom with her fine, slow-acting fever root. Lio had seen two kingdoms now tear themselves apart in violent, bloody displays, all because Noee had silently moved in with her bag of tricks.

 

However, people did frequently underestimate her. She was far shorter than most -- a feat in Helspraucht, where the women stood far taller than the man-kings beyond the continent -- and foreign to boot. Lio had seen others reveal sensitive information right in front of Noee without any provocation, all because they assumed that she could not speak the language.

 

In this way, she was Lio's best, a distinction that afforded Noee and Lio a very unique bond. Now, Noee took out a leaf from the very sayam that sheltered their queen across the lawn, nestling into the green frond a sprinkling of plucked herbs. As she twisted the palm around its plump, sticky bounty, she said, "I've never seen you pout before."

 

"Is that what I'm doing?" Lio laughed, splashing water at her. Noee forfeited her project for a moment in favor of covering her face.

 

"I've never seen you all alone either. Is it that?" asked Noee, indicating the moon's second reflection.

 

This was why Lio trusted Noee dearly, and always reminded herself not to trust her completely. All of Helspraucht lived by the moon's double image, tending their gardens and their businesses in accordance with each phase. They typically did not fear the moon's spectral twin, but Lio could do nothing more than stare in horror at it tonight.

 

The second reflection, the _alun_ , was dark, lit only by a sparkling corona of golden fire. The darkness of the _alun_ was not stationary; in the still water, Noee and Lio could clearly see the shadows moving, teeming restlessly. This marked the beginning of the season of Haunit, of harvests and tributes and Lio's favorite ceremony, the _mesista_. However, Lio did not look overjoyed.

 

"Well, I wouldn't want to spend Haunit in Halchein either," Noee remarked. "We should've done away with all that business when we moved in on the cardinal."

 

"No." Lio had been a firm believer otherwise, but that was before Bené.

 

"Really?" asked Noee, her craftsmanship finally pleasing enough to exhibit with a sweep of her hand. The palm was lit and passed between them, and smoke drifted over the pool, idling atop the _alun's_ reflection. "You don't think it's gonna be a problem, all that witchcraft so soon after their last leader abnegated her title?"

 

"Bené is solid," said Lio.

 

"Bené is a mark," reminded Noee. She seemed to take a particular pleasure in this, most probably because it was the finest sort of hypocrisy. "Not that our fearless leader has let that slip from her mind."

 

"Not at all. I am as professional with her as you are with that Gongkrakic trader." And there it was. Tiana was the one who had opened up their ports to the other continents beyond the vast blue ocean that cradled the crags and heights of Helspraucht, but Noee had kept the peace for two years now through a treaty that she had officiated with the Gongkrakic ambassador in the privacy of her own chambers. Tiana knew of the affair, and disapproved, but once in motion, Lio and Tiana both knew that Noee could not be stopped.

 

"That's what I'm worried about. Mifael and I aren't professional at all," Noee laughed, streaming two twin jets of smoke from her nostrils. "But Lio, fair Lio, brave Lio, _dependable_ Lio, she always is. I take it you'll be spending the _mesista_ with Bené?"

 

"Bené doesn't know the _mesista_ ," Lio informed her. As studied as Noee was, she still did not grow up within the kingdom, same as Bené. Some things were lost in translation. "That ceremony's only for my people."

 

"And yet our queen celebrates it. It's in vogue, right? The _sila_ and _akusa_ and all that?" asked Noee.

 

"Only because Tiana sees it as an integral part of the progression of our society. Where I come from, you are a _sila_ until an _akusa_ takes you. She teaches you one unique thing that you will learn nowhere else, and instructs you, along the way, to become a respectable member of the tribe. Rara's version of it is a little different, but she keeps the spirit."

 

"Respectable member," Noee giggled. "Who was your _akusa_? You might want to have her excused from the service."

 

At Lio's silence, Noee's eyes widened. She laughed.

 

"It was Tiana, wasn't it?"

 

"Don't blame her for this." Lio had to laugh as well. "I was called away before she could truly teach me anything. She tries now, but it seems I've grown into a difficult phase."

 

"I'll say." Noee passed the palm along. "Maybe I should take an _akusa_."

 

"You don't take an _akusa_." Lio plucked the palm from her fingers. "An _akusa_ chooses her _sila_."

 

"But I wouldn't want a Helspraucht _akusa_ ," Noee continued. "I think they'd be hard-pressed to keep me in line. Any from your tribe you know that'd do the trick?"

 

"Dream on," Lio snickered, and finally returned the palm to Noee. "They couldn't keep you in line either. I'm afraid that I am the closest you will ever get to an _akusa_ of your own."

 

"And you come with such accolades. You know, they're thinking of holding _mesista_ in Basai. My mother wrote me last month to tell me the news."

 

"No doubt Tiana is behind that one too," Lio said. "When a _sila_ is fit for marriage, her husband must still buy out her contract with the _akusa_. In my village, they ask for metal or chickens. Tiana's _akusa_ tend to ask for land and ships."

 

"I'm in the wrong business," Noee said, tumbling into her leader.

 

"We both are," Lio agreed.

 

"Well, don't look too glum," Noee said. "I wouldn't want to be eaten by the second part of your culture that completely confounds me."

 

Lio snickered, but waved a hand over her own lap. This shook the particles of the illusion that her bestia kept, dispersing her cloak and revealing her.

 

As far as bestia went, Kali was one of the most captivating. Others had described her as a panther, or a lion, or a white tiger. All of these were wrong. Kali's distinctly feline head covered much of Lio's lap, but that was where the similarities ended. She was immense, with a thickly furred tail that extended for a yard past the dangerous streamlined litheness of her body. Noee could hardly make out the deep rumble emanating from the bestia above the hum of the circle beyond, but she could certainly feel it in her bones.

 

Noee could also, without too much imagination, feel the bestia's claws in her bones. They were impossible to miss and hard to look away from. They were curved white gold sickles dispersed through the bestia's rich white fur, with a barbed thumb claw that promised seven flavors of pain. Though the mighty cat's eyes were closed in sleep, Noee knew that beneath lurked a startlingly intelligent gaze, silver in color and cleaved with a black, fang-shaped pupil.

 

The bestia had never hurt her, but it did not seem to care for Noee either way. Still, she asked, "What does Kali think of all this?"

 

"You know Kali," Lio mumbled, burying her fingers in the cat's great white mane. "I imagine that she thinks, "Where is my food?""

 

"Hm. She has a point. I'm famished," Noee said. "Tell me: what does she think about acive pie? With a ralo ganache and glazed griyam bites and a cup full of spiced mosina?"

 

Poisons, as it turned out, were a kind of art similar to culinary ones. Noee had come to Helspraucht as a decorated chef, after all, though only Lio and Tiana truly knew the extent of her vast mental archive of recipes.

 

And knew them well. Lio had to stop herself from salivating all over her bestia.

 

"We have _mosina_?" she asked.

 

"I squirreled some away for just this occasion. I'll even squeeze some tamba juice for it; I know how your people love everything bitter and awful."

 

"Consider yourself seriously looked at for a raise," Lio announced as she stood. The bestia faded once more away from reality, leaving Noee and Lio deceptively alone as they walked the grounds, saying their hellos and looking just as joyous and carefree as the rest of the revelers.

 

Except for the one silent, apprehensive look Lio took over her shoulder, reminding herself once more that the edges of the _alun_ were burning.

 

 

***

 

 

Though the Graya kept council above the queen's bed, only Lio actually stayed there. After a long night, with her belly full of good food, her lungs full of good smoke, and her eyes overloaded with beautiful sights that properly suited the commencement of the _mesista_ ceremonies, Lio slept in. By the time she was awake enough again to climb out of her attic and down the queen's bed, Rara was already up, mail spread across the coverlet.

 

This was not her mail, but Lio's. Rara took a great delight in reading about Lio's global conquests through the perspective of the conquered, and Lio never minded. What did unsettle her was that all the letters were opened but for one. Increasingly lately, Rara had stopped opening mail postmarked from Halchein. Though Lio could clearly make out the yellow canary seal from where she landed, she tried not to allude to it.

 

"Fair morning to you, my radiant queen." Lio swept aside notes from Althemia, Basai, Alstonia, and farther on her way to sit beside the queen, propping up a few of those pink feather pillows for herself. There was a pink feathered drape across Rara's knees as well; Lio burrowed under and read over her shoulder. "Ahh, Lady Kimi, from Moctagua. What does she have to say?"

 

"The same as all the rest," Rara laughed, leaning into the warmth of her trusted ally. "Please, they implore you, spend the _mesista_ in Moctagua or Basai or Vilhimine or Onbarez. This one wants to know a true _mesista_ , with a true _akusa_."

 

"Tell her I'll send Noee," said Lio. "Or Zara-li, she has a taste for that infernal heat."

 

"Lio," Rara scolded, shaking her head. "They don't want Noee or Zara-li. they want you."

 

"What's the difference? Lady Kimi doesn't know what a _mesista_ really is. I could tell them to throw her in the river and for all she'd know it could be tradition."

 

"They don't want that either," Rara laughed.

 

"And how do you know?" Lio asked lowly, dipping again beneath the blankets. Only her eyes were visible, the disconcerting shades of gold and green and brown of her people.

 

"I... just do," said Rara, sniffing importantly to cover the stammering of her heart. "But I suppose you will be spending the _mesista_ in Halchein."

 

It was a fair enough riposte. Lio squirmed out from under the blankets and finally acknowledged the untouched letter. "I'd planned to stay here."

 

"Tiana says you won't."

 

"What does Tiana know?" Lio didn't sound as kind as she would have liked, but Rara did not back down.

 

"That's a silly thing to ask. If Tiana was blind to the whole world, she would still know you by heart," said Rara.

 

"I want to stay," Lio protested. "I was taken from Tiana before I was ready. She still has so much to teach me and this is the first good chance we have to recommence. There are no wars, no uprisings. No apartments in Samail."

 

"But you won't," Rara insisted, and Lio sighed.

 

"It's one thing for my _akusa_ to know me so well," she said. Her lips drove her forward, until they were just about an inch away from her queen's. "But you too? That's another thing entirely."

 

"It is," Rara agreed. She had a hand up, but no matter how her fingers twitched, they never seemed to be able to find Lio's skin. "I can't say that I like it, Graya."

 

"Maybe you should stop reading my mail, My Light," Lio replied, grinning like a wolf. In response, Rara's eyes were half-lidded and her gaze drifted. Lio could see her ankles rubbing beneath the blanket.

 

"Everyone's business is the queen's business," Rara maintained, though her words were slurred. "I must see everything."

 

"I know one thing you haven't seen," said Lio, hand fanned as if to cradle the queen's cheek.

 

Before her fingers could touch upon Rara's soft, pale cheeks, the queen blurted, "I've asked Tiana to be my _akusa_."

 

That was enough. Lio withdrew nearly to the edge of the bed.

 

"... You can't," she said. "You can't ask an _akusa_. They ask you."

 

"I don't care. I am queen. Your traditions are obviously very important to me, but they are nothing without my consent."

 

It was difficult to see Rara like this. Surrounded eternally by her pink _amingu_ feathers and her delicate rosegold chains and her sparkling pink Swakovic diamonds, she was easy to dismiss as a silly, giggly, bright little girl.

 

But she wasn't. Though Tiana had never officially taken her to the level of _akusa_ and _sila_ , she had still counseled their queen well. Much better, in fact, than she had ever had a chance to council Lio. And now she would have an even better opportunity to do so. The thought turned Lio's stomach, successfully driving her off the bed.

 

"As you wish, My Light."

 

Rara, shunned for the second time by this formal affectation, clicked her tongue. "What is wrong with this arrangement? Is it so blasphemous?"

 

"Nothing you do can be blasphemy," Lio said coldly, plucking the Halchein letter from the coverlet. "My Light."

 

"Lio, cut it out!" Rara warned. "I'll talk-- I'm willing to listen, but you have to _talk_ \--"

 

"Oh sure," Lio replied. "Send word for me. I'll be in Halchein."

 

Royal doors slammed heavily, Lio noted with pleasure. Rara would not bother to follow her; she knew well enough that a spat between them was always soon forgotten and that their professional relationship was never in any true danger.

 

Usually. This was a different scenario now that Lio did not even want to contemplate. Instead, she rounded the great hall and took the path out to the garden.

 

Rara's garden was world-renowned. Great, spiraling tiers lifted gamely into the heavens, passing a crystalline waterfall between the steppes. At its highest tier, Lio sat and dangled her feet off the drop and looked out over the immense fields below her. For a moment, she allowed herself to wonder what the letter might contain. She tried to imagine the worst -- word from Halchein that the duchess had been killed in a freak carting accident. Word from the duchess that she had taken another _akusa_ and never wanted to see Lio again.

 

Perhaps, nestled so innocuously inside this perfumed envelope, there was word from the duchess that she knew who Lio was, what she was, what she had done. Lio imagined all the half-concealed truths about her past coming to light, while the Duchess Bené of Halchein watched and shook her head and vowed to tear Lio's heart from her chest while she was still alive to scream about it.

 

As Lio suspected, the opening of the duchess's letter dispersed her fears.

 

_I know now the glory of living in wait._

 

The duchess knew words unlike any other. Which she chose, how she wove them together in her clever narratives, and her skillful application of the technicalities of these written words amazed and moved Lio. Every time her mind wandered away, to that beautiful apartment in Samail, to the warmth of the queen's bed, or to the interesting new high priestess of Basai, Lio needed only these words to bring her back to heel.

 

_Every day has the potential to be the day that my waiting will end. And so to wait for you is the finest pleasure, and also the cruelest torture I have ever endured._

 

Moved, Lio rubbed her lips against the words, breathing in the smell of ink. Unlike Tiana's dyes, these were heady and dank, intoxicating in their earthy smell.

 

_I do not want to know if you are coming. I want to find you one day, in my garden, waiting for me. You will see me smile like you have seen no one else smile, I can assure you._

 

As they often did, Bené's words were faultlessly persuasive. Lio found herself smiling.

 

_Happy_ mesista _to you, my_ akusa _. If that is even a thing you say! Know that I thought about you for the duration of my trip to Basai... and that I found you incredibly distracting._

 

Bené went on to detail her trip. One week in the swamps, where it rained every night. They lost their map somewhere outside of the capital of Miziza, and had to follow a herd of buffalo to water. Two of her traveling partners passed, one from fever, the other from the cold. Bené, if nothing else, had a vast collection of expired traveling associates and a sultan's trove of interesting and colorful stories.

 

But always, she returned for the season of Haunit, to make preparations with her fellow Halchein. Just like Lio's people, Bené's had a prevailing ceremony in the Haunit season too. Instead of _mesista_ , they had _Haoul_.

 

To outsiders who had never been privvy to the rituals of _Haoul_ , it seemed like a joyful and mysterious occasion. This was the time of the year when the Halchein communed with their spirits, gathering tributes and burning curious medleys of herb and bone and soil. Unlike the bestia spirits that walked with Lio's people, the Haoul spirits remained in their realm and commanded the Halchein through their own minds, generously granting them magics that people pilgrimaged from all edges of the world to see. From fantastic light shows in the sky to the healing arts of the cardinal's priestesses, there was little the Haoul pantheon could not do.

 

One such impossible feat was to make Lio genuinely fearful. And so, as Lio sat in the sunlight, dreaming of sneaking into Bené's garden to surprise her on the eve of both their ceremonies, her stomach was twisted by the sick clench of fear. After the first Haoul, Lio had made it a tradition to lie and be elsewhere when _mesista_ rolled around. She could visit Bené just as well in the warm season of Tamain. Noctula would be far too long, and she didn't like the way the sun never seemed to rise in Halchein for that season, but even that was a more compelling time to go than Haoul.

 

But then Lio recalled what Rara had said in her chambers. She thought of what it would be like to see Rara take her place as Tiana's _sila_.

 

In that moment, the decision to go to Halchein for _mesista_ was made for her. Lio went back into the palace, but only to pack. The road from here to Halchein proper was days long, and _mesista_ was creeping ever closer.   


End file.
